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Figure 3.7 San Francisco Javier,
1992. Courtesy of the authors.
The properties north of San Francisco Javier, generally small to medium in size,
were planted in coffee before the war and the National Guard maintained a post
in the town. An American immigrant, Billy Moore, dominated the town, owning eight
coffee fincas and a cattle ranch in the town's outskirts, as well as the municipality's
sole coffee mill. Two other families also had large landholdings: the Vidaurre
family owned a coffee finca and a sizeable property south of the town and the
Del 'Pech family, owners of the Hacienda La Normandía, also owned a farm
near San Francisco Javier. Workers lived in the town and in the surrounding cantones
and had very limited access to land for planting corn.
By the end of the civil war, the pattern of land tenure and land use in the
immediate area of San Francisco Javier had been transformed, as shown in the map
of the town (the small shapes are homes) and the surrounding area. As indicated
by the crosses scattered around the town (not just in the cemetery in the lower
right hand side of the map), conflict in the area had claimed a significant number
of lives. The most obvious change in the landscape is the planting of corn north
of the town; before the war it had been entirely coffee groves. Not all land was
planted, however, as indicated by the plots labeled "bosque" (forest)
to the left of the road running from the top to the bottom of the map; that land
had all been coffee as well.
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